Chris Johnson, Bobby Borchering, Dan Vogelbach, Hudson Boyd do all they can to make it.

Apr. 8, 2012

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Rising up

Here’s a look at the four Bishop Verot High School graduates playing professional baseball:

Chris JohnsonThen: Hit .460 with two home runs, 30 RBI and 12 stolen bases as a Verot senior in 2003. Now: Starting third baseman for the Houston Astros at age 27.

Bobby BorcheringThen: Hit .494 with 13 home runs and 37 RBI as a senior third baseman in 2009. Now: Playing outfield for the high Class A Visalia (Calif.) Rawhide in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization.

Dan VogelbachThen: Vogelbach, 19, hit .459 with a school-record 17 home runs last season at Verot. He also had 50 RBI. Now: In extended spring training in Peoria, Az., projecting to start this season in the low minor leagues for the Chicago Cubs.

Hudson BoydThen: Had a 12-0 record with a 0.46 ERA and 123 strikeouts in 73 innings last season. He also batted .391 with nine home runs and 39 RBI. Now: The right-hander is in extended spring training for the Minnesota Twins at the Lee County Sports Complex. He will begin competing in the Gulf Coast League for minor league rookies in June.

“I’ve been talking to him a lot,” Vogelbach said. “I miss him. Things aren’t the same without him. It’ll never be the same. No matter where he goes, it’s safe to say he’ll always be a Viking.”

LoSauro departed Bishop Verot last summer after guiding the Vikings to the Class 3A baseball state championship last season. He declined to talk about the circumstances surrounding his departure after spending 18 years at the school.

Bishop Verot principal John Cavell acknowledged there were some behind-the-scenes issues but said LoSauro was not fired — that he received the right opportunity at the right time.

“Everything happened in a whirlwind,” said LoSauro, now the athletic director and baseball coach at Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School in Spring Hill, north of Tampa. “I left the school on July 24 and moved into my new home by Aug. 1.”

LoSauro has followed the progress of his players in the pros with a keen interest.

“It’s a really great thing as a coach when you have guys come into your program and they just work really hard,” LoSauro said. “It’s nice to see some of the fruits of that labor. It’s hard work to get there, and once you get into pro ball, it’s even harder work to stay there.”

BREAKING THROUGH

Johnson, 27, has discovered the challenge not so much of reaching the big leagues, but of staying there.

Johnson, who graduated from Bishop Verot in 2003, turned down being a late-round pick by the Boston Red Sox, signing with Stetson University instead.

The Astros then chose him in the fourth round of the 2006 draft.

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LoSauro called Johnson “one of the best defensive shortstops we’ve ever had.”

Johnson converted to third base in the minors. He made his big-league debut Sept. 9, 2009, against the Atlanta Braves. Since then, he has hit .273 with 18 home runs, 95 RBI and five stolen bases in 212 games.

After struggling at the plate last season, Johnson had to compete this spring training against Brett Wallace for the third base job.

Johnson kept the job after hitting .368 with five home runs, 11 RBI and six doubles this March.

“Oh my God, you have no idea,” Karen Crowther-Johnson, Chris’s mom, said of the anxiety her son’s uncertain status caused her. “It’s your son, and you want to see him succeed more than anything. When he’s struggling, that weighs on me. He’s the one who has to hit the 99-mile per hour fastball. I can’t do it for him.”

Crowther-Johnson said that although her son still gets to start, it doesn’t exactly relieve her.

“I don’t know if relief is a good word for it, because he can’t stop battling for that job,” she said.

Crowther-Johnson intends to watch her son in person next weekend at the new Marlins Park in Miami, where the Astros are playing the Marlins on Friday through Sunday.

LoSauro said Johnson’s success hasn’t surprised him.

“It’s really hard to project a guy as a big leaguer,” LoSauro said. “But I knew Chris Johnson was going to get into pro ball. He was relentless. If there was one word to describe Chris at Bishop Verot, it’s relentless. He would just get after it. He was a tremendous competitor.”

BIG SWITCH

Borchering, 21 and an Alva native, played shortstop until moving to third his junior year at Verot.

The Diamondbacks chose him with the 16th overall pick in that year’s draft.

“Bobby came in, and he was a constant, blue-collar worker,” LoSauro said. “He was a grinder. Whatever you said, he just did it. Bobby was a power hitter. Chris Johnson was more of a line drive hitter.”

Borchering hit .267 with 24 home runs, 92 RBI and four stolen bases for high Class A Visalia (Calif.) last season. He’ll start this season again with the Visalia Rawhide. He also switched his primary position from third base to the outfield.

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“They feel like that can open up some doors for me,” Borchering said. “It’s always better to have more positions to play. It’s good that I’m learning it now.”

Becoming a professional baseball player straight out of high school has its own set of challenges, he said.

“It’s a whole different game now,” Borchering said. “You’ve got guys from all over the country who want to play pro ball and get better. It’s just a challenge, mentally and physically. It’s an exciting time, too.

“It’s a big jump from high school. You’re out on your own. You’re learning how to be a man and also how to be a pro baseball player. Those are two hard things to be doing at once.”

THE CUB'S CUB

Weighing 250 pounds, the 6-foot Vogelbach, 19, has a Babe Ruthian build and swing to go along with it, LoSauro said.

“Daniel, he was probably the greatest hitter ever to play at Verot,” LoSauro said. “And that’s not taking anything away from the guys we’ve had come through there.

“He could flat-out hit. For his size and build, he’s an incredible runner.

“He’s much more athletic than people give him credit for.”

Vogelbach and Borchering have reunited in Arizona. Although they play in different organizations, they sometimes meet for dinner, with the younger Vogelbach asking the Borchering for advice.

Vogelbach talked about the adjustments he had to make, the ones Borchering made three years ago.

“It’s no longer hitting a home run every game,” Vogelbach said. “You learn every day that you can’t dwell on the past. You have to be ready for the game again tomorrow, for it to come right back at you.

“I have a goal to be in the big leagues in three years. But I’m trying not to worry about that. All you can do is perform and show them what you can do.”

BIG BOYD

Boyd, 19, said he has been trying to watch his weight from when the Twins chose him with the 55th overall pick in the first round of last year’s draft.

Twins director of minor leagues Jim Rantz said Boyd must keep the weight under control if he wants to rise through the minor leagues. Boyd, listed at 6-foot-2 in the Twins media guide, weighed 275 pounds last summer. As of last week, he had lost 13 pounds, down to 262.

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“He’s working on it,” Rantz said. “We’re not looking to get him down to 200. He’s just a big kid. He’s got a good arm. He’s got what we’re looking for. He just needs to get his confidence. He’s got to stay focused on what he needs to do.”

LoSauro said he’s not surprised at the weight being an issue.

“It’s hard to keep the weight off him,” LoSauro said. “He’s the epitome of what we’re trying to keep kids away from eating. He needs not a fitness trainer but a nutritionist.”

Boyd’s pitching never has been an issue, LoSauro said.

Boyd threw a complete-game shutout victory against Mount Dora in the Class 3A state semifinals last season.

“He may have been one of the greatest high school pitchers ever to come out of Lee County,” LoSauro said. “He’s in that group. He throws an exploding breaking ball. He has great command of a curveball. He could throw the curveball for strikes. He could get a lot of hitters out with that curveball.”

Boyd lives in a hotel now instead of with his parents. He does the same routine as his extended spring training teammates, and he projects to begin this season in the Gulf Coast League as one of many teenaged prospects.

“Being out there every day, that’s become the biggest adjustment,” Boyd said. “Everyone is tired. You have to find a way to push through it.”

MOVING FORWARD

Boyd, Vogelbach and Borchering each said they understand that reaching the big leagues like Johnson would be a process. It wouldn’t happen overnight.

Getting there, Boyd said, should be easier having played for LoSauro.

“One of the things he was good about was he always had a game plan for everything,” Boyd said. “You’ve got to have a game plan for everything. That’s what will always stick with me about him.”

Said Vogelbach: “He hated to lose. That’s how I am. I can’t stand losing. He and I didn’t always get along. I disagreed with him a lot. But when it came down to it, he hated to lose, and he always allowed us to learn from our mistakes. He helped us grow as people, too.”

LoSauro said there’s no reason, barring injuries or setbacks, why the four Vikings couldn’t all play in the big leagues at once.

“They are all in a close enough age group for that to happen,” LoSauro said. “A lot of things could happen between now and then. But that would be a celebration there, I can tell you that.”